A black-and-white silver halide photographic material is generally processed, after having been exposed, by a process comprising development, fixation, rinsing and drying. Recently, the process is mostly carried out with an automatic developing machine. In general, the development of the material using such an automatic developing machine is effected with replenishing a determined amount of a developer in proportion to the area of the material being processed. It has heretofore been desired to obtain stable photographic properties of the material developed and processed in this manner. It has also been desired to reduce the amount of the replenisher per the unit area of the material being processed, with still obtaining stable photographic properties of the processed material. Heretofore, when a so-called sheet-shaped photographic material such as an X-ray photographic material or graphic art photographic material is processed, it is general to replenish a replenisher of the developer in an amount of 250 ml or more, especially 330 ml or more, per m.sup.2 of the material being processed.
However, since a waste from photographic development has a high chemical oxygen demand (C.O.D.) or has a high biological oxygen demand (B.O.D.), chemical or biological treatment is applied to the waste so as to make it non-toxic prior to draining the waste. As such treatment of the photographic waste is a great economical burden to the users, a development method of needing a reduced amount of replenisher to the developer is desired.